Is something afoot in your local elementary school? Do you need a detective that you can afford on a lunch money-sized rate? Is there a caper that can only be solved by getting inside the mind of a second grader? (Cases involving canines need not apply.) If the answer is yes (or even maybe), then you’re looking to hire the lead character of the all-ages comic Jimmy Brass: 2nd Grade Detective! Created by Jake Dickerman and Jason Pruett, Jimmy Brass: 2nd Grade Detective has recently released its second issue containing a case involving a missing hamster, elementary-aged zoologists, and events that may even force Jimmy and his longtime companion and bodyguard, Opal, to work this mystery separately!

When I first picked up the Johnny Red collection Angels Over Stalingrad, I was completely excited. As a late-blooming American comic fan, I wasn’t familiar with the title and had never heard of either the writer or artist, Tom Tully and Joe Colquhoun, respectively, but that didn’t matter. All I saw was the bright and beautiful, oversized hardcover depicting Johnny Red’s weathered face adorned with flight cap and goggles, his trademark WWII-era Hawker Hurricane propeller plane buzzing a war-ravaged city, and the magic words that will get me to buy almost any comic book . . . “Introduction by Garth Ennis.”

While Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 9 has floundered a bit in the past, especially given the highly positive reception of its sister series Angel & Faith, writer Andrew Chambliss has slowly been raising the caliber of the book ever since fan favorite Illyria joined the team. Now, as the series closes in on its last six issues, the release of Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 9 #19 seems to be heralding that Dark Horse’s flagship “Whedon” book has finally gotten its mojo back!

WE Comics continues to deliver on its promise to deliver “comics for everyone else” with the third issue of their popular all-ages series, How I Spent My Summer Invasion! Having established the tone and setting of the book, writer Patrick Rieger and artist Mark Sean Wilson are really able to shuck off the chains of necessity left over from establishing the bookʼs origin and stretch their creative wings, delivering the best issue of the series thus far!

It seems as though there is a significant amount of time between issues of this series, so here’s the third installment of a great series. I haven’t had any previous experience with this creative team, but I’ve been very well surprised by the way this has been going—I just wish it would get published more quickly.

Getting back to the heart of the Star Wars films, Brian Wood's Star Wars series has shed the bulk of the Expanded Universe and focused on a series of stories of everyone's favorite heroes of the Rebellion and Dark Lord of the Sith. Issue #3 really heats things up as Leia's unit gets closer to implementation, and Han and Chewie manage to get in over their heads at what should be a simple meeting.

A mad scientist-like inventor with a house full of cats and a desire to become the next rock legend - that's Emily in a nutshell. Issue #1 focused on her developing musical talents, and, though she held her own solo, she's about to face a new challenge: forming a band.

This is a great all-ages comic with a simple premise, timeless problems, and a great execution. The issue starts off with a well-done recap of Issue #1, which are actually some of my favorite pages for the manner in which it catches up new readers. If recaps managed to be this simple, fun, and interesting to look at all the time, I'd want them in a lot of other books.

The New Marvel is a series that looks at the changes that the mega-comic empire made following the events of Avengers vs. X-Men and the impact that those changes have on the stories of Marvel NOW! Six issues (or more) into each Marvel NOW! title, we see what our favorite characters are up to and what to keep an eye out for in the future.

The one-time and forever great love of Bruce Banner’s life, Betty Ross, has often been at odds with her sense of duty to what is right and her love for the man her father spent years chasing after. Even before her change, she struggled to be a force for good in the world in which everyone saw the Hulk as a force of destruction. Now, coming to terms with her own status, she tries to help change the world for the better to prevent a disastrous future. She is one of many, one of few; she is the Red She-Hulk.

You don’t just read Everybody Loves Tank Girl by Alan C. Martin and Jim Mahfood, you enter into it, like some passionate, beer-drenched, shotgun wedding. And, you can be sure that hearts will be broken, curses will rain down like a plague, lovers will be shot, and people will fight and f--k and die, and through it all, Tank Girl and her man (er, kangaroo) Booga will be there to lend a helping hand grenade.

Sure, his layouts brought a cinematic quality to the genre. Yeah, his seminal work, A Contract With God, stands as a watermark of art and story in a period where the two didn’t often blend well. Of course, he helped to define the comics industry, both on the page and off, setting professional standards that are still being reached for today.

But, did you also know he did how-to manuals for the Army in World War II?